Don't Stop the Carnival (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Kinja was the name of the island when it was British..." (more)
Key Phrases: old truth teller, dance terrace, pink cottage, New York, Gull Reef Club, Norman Paperman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It's every parrothead's dream: to leave behind the rat race of the workaday world and start life all over again amidst the cool breezes, sun-drenched colors, and rum-laced drinks of a tropical paradise.

It's the story of Norman Paperman, a New York City press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvent himself as a hotel keeper. (Hilarity and disaster -- of a sort peculiar to the tropics -- ensue.)

It's the novel in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such acclaimed and bestselling novels as The Caine Mutiny and War and Remembrance draws on his own experience (Wouk and his family lived for seven years on an island in the sun) to tell a story at once brilliantly comic and deeply moving. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

10 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 395 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (April 18, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385020031
• ISBN-13: 978-0385020039
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #846,661 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic From 1965 Still Best of the Beach Books, July 19, 2004

By	Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Don't Stop The Carnival (Paperback)

You'll be humming "Carn-nee-val is very sweet, Please don't stop de Car-nee-Val" as you eagerly read this most enjoyable Herman Wouk novel. The amusing tale of New York public relations man Norman Paperman centers on a universal dream---quitting the rat race, escaping to the sunny Caribbean to loll about in the sunshine amidst scantily-clad beauties, and be the King of one's own alcohol-induced domain.

Norman is swept into the realization of his mid-life crisis when exuberant Lester Atlas presents him with a fait accompli---money to become an island innkeeper, supervising one of the most charming money-makers on the fictional island of Amerigo. Norman soon discovers being an innkeeper is fraught with peril, but his misadventures will leave you laughing and longing for a quick trip to sunny Paradise.

Many characters propel this book, each charmingly depicted as only a great storyteller like Wouk can. From the reclusive Iris Tramm, to the all-forgiving Henny Paperman and her nubile daughter Hazel, to the outrageous Hippolyte, and most especially the native Kinjans who give this novel a charm most realistic yet alarming, the reader is swept into life on an island paradise that is at once heaven and hell.

Can Norman forget his successful New York career and make the transition to a change in latitude and attitude? Will phrases like "We be jammin', mon" erase the bitter cold of a New York winter and the thousand indignities a pr man must suffer? Will his penchant for extra-marital affairs be his undoing? Will a long-ago girlfriend's dark secret shock him? Put on the suntan oil and read while you bake for an experience everyone should have at least once.

By the way, the book is not complete until you also listen to the CD from the musical that Jimmy Buffett and Herman Wouk collaborated on. It may not have been the toast of Broadway but it is the perfect accompaniment to a reading of this book.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Stop the Carnival, January 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read and I like to consider myself somewhat well-read. Herman Wouk has developed characters that truly come to life. You will not be able to put this book down. You will be compelled to keep reading wondering to yourself "What else could possibly go wrong?". Despite the moral of the story, you'll want to run right out and purchase a Carribean hotel. When you're done reading, listen to Don't Stop the Carnival by Jimmy Buffett. The CD doesn't make any sense until you read this book.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Author, July 16, 2003

By	HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel (Paperback)

For a book that had its first printing about 40 years ago, DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL remains both fresh and plausible. The premise of a harried New Yorker dropping out of life in the Big Apple to take up inn-keeping on a tiny Caribbean island is virtually a universal fantasy in Manhattan, where everyone seems to want to do exactly that--if they're not heading up to the Berkshires instead.

As hilarious as the adventures here are, they never actually cross that fine line into the implausible, quite a balance when writing fiction.

DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL is a change of pace for Mr. Wouk, who usually writes more serious books. He probably is best known for MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR, but his versatility is evident in works ranging from THE CAINE MUTINY to THIS IS MY GOD, as well as the important Holocaust work, THE WINDS OF WAR and its sequel, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. It is this versatility, combined with his elegant prose, that makes him my favorite author.

For years now, it's been rumored that Herman Wouk and Jimmy Buffet are working together on a Broadway musical based on DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL. Personally, I can't wait!